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Contrary to popular opinion, not all trans fats are bad for you.

University of Alberta researcher Flora Wang found that a diet with enriched levels of trans vaccenic acid (VA) – a natural animal fat found in dairy and beef products – can reduce risk factors associated with heart disease, diabetes and obesity

Results indicated this benefit was due in part to the ability of VA to reduce the production of chylomicrons – particles of fat and cholesterol that form in the small intestine following a meal and are rapidly processed throughout the body. The role of chylomicrons is increasingly viewed as a critical missing link in the understanding of conditions arising from metabolic disorders.

“Our results provide further evidence of the important role of chylomicrons in contributing to risk factors associated with metabolic disorders,” said Wang, a PhD candidate in the University of Alberta Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences. “They also indicate a strong opportunity for using diets with enhanced VA to help reduce these risk factors.”

The research involved two VA feeding trials – one short-term (three weeks) and one long-term (16 weeks) – using model rat species for obesity and the metabolic syndrome.

The results, presented recently at the International Symposium on Chylomicrons in Disease, included novel findings that VA may have direct effects on the intestine. In addition, they showed key metabolic risk factors were reduced. For example, in the long-term trial, total cholesterol was lowered by approximately 30 per cent, LDL cholesterol was lowered by 25 per cent and triglyceride levels were lowered by more than 50 per cent.

Because VA is the major natural trans fat in dairy and beef products, comprising more than 70 per cent of the proportion of natural trans fat content in those products, the findings support a growing body of evidence that indicates natural animal-based trans fat is different than harmful hydrogenated trans fat created through industrial processing, Wang noted.

“As the VA results illustrate, some natural trans fats are not harmful and may in fact be very good for you,” she said.

Source: Eureka, 2 April 2008

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Studies have shown that exercise has a positive effect on mothers-to-be, and no detrimental impact on their developing offspring. A new study further extends the knowledge of research in this area and has found that not only do women benefit from exercise in pregnancy, but their fetuses do too.

Researchers of this study hypothesized that maternal exercise during pregnancy can have a beneficial effect on fetal cardiac programming by reducing fetal heart rate and increasing heart rate variability. As a result, a key component of the research involved magnetocardiography (MCG), the magnetic correlate of an electrocardiogram (ECG). MCG is a safe, non-invasive method to record the magnetic field surrounding the electrical currents generated by the fetal heart and nervous system. In addition to measures of heart rate and variability, the MCG allows for the study of the cardiac waveforms to measure of cardiac time intervals.

For the study, fetal recordings were obtained from 24 weeks to term. Maternal and fetal events were recorded in real time. Fetal movements such as breathing, body and mouth movements were recorded using the MCG in order to determine fetal state and to track heart rate accelerations. The recordings were done at four-week intervals. The data were derived from fetal MCG conducted in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy and in the postnatal period. The data captured was used to measure fetal heart rate (HR) as derived from the fetal MCG recordings.

Ten women participated in the study. Each was classified as either an exerciser (n=5) or control (n=5). The women were grouped according to the frequency, intensity, and length of physical activity they engaged in (i.e., moderate-to-heavy intensity aerobic activity for 30 minutes per session three times per week or the metabolic equivalent).

The researchers found:

* Significantly lower heart rates among fetuses that had been exposed to maternal exercise. The heart rates among non-exposed fetuses were higher, regardless of the fetal activity or the gestational age.

* At each stage of gestation the differences between the fetal heart rates of the two groups were statistically significant (p<0.05 using a t-test with equal variances).

* The analysis of short- and long-term heart variability at 28, 32 and 36 weeks of gestation in exercise-exposed vs. non-exercise-exposed fetuses were statistically different at 32 wks. This trend is still seen at 36 wks, however it is not significant.

The researchers have concluded that a mother who exercises may not only be imparting health benefits to her own heart, but to her developing baby’s heart as well. As a result of this pilot study, they plan to include more pregnant women in their studies.

Source: Eureka, 7 April 2008

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